For all the swoon-worthy romances in the Marvel comics, the brand’s cinematic universe counterpart is severely lacking. Early on in the franchise, each hero would get a romantic interest, as was otherwise standard in the genre, but even then, the arcs left much to be desired. Steve and Peggy had a lot of chemistry but were underdeveloped and rushed, and Thor and Jane were completely ruined over the years.
While there have been a handful of couples in the MCU that have managed to compete against the greatest romance ever in superhero film history (Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone’s Peter and Gwen, of course, followed closely by Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst’s Peter and M.J), with so many movies and TV shows, it’s shocking how low that number is.
Tony and Pepper are the first couple of the MCU, and being able to see their relationship blossom from the flirtatious tension of the first Iron Man movie to the loving family of Avengers: Endgame was incredibly rewarding. Likewise, James Gunn managed to craft a beautiful romance between Peter and Gamora despite being thrown for a loop by the Endgame writers. Wanda and Vision, even if an odd pairing between sorcerer and android, gave everyone “the feels” during their Disney Plus show. Peter and MJ are great, although a lot more tame than we’re used to getting in Spider-Man films. Other couples like Druig and Makkari, Clint and Laura, and Jennifer and Matt work incredibly well together but are severely underused (so far).
Everyone else is, in one word, forgettable.
Hope and Scott
Ant-Man and The Wasp‘s Hope van Dyne and Scott Lang are arguably the MCU’s most stable couple, but their relationship is so vanilla, we struggle to see a future where they’re remembered fondly. Most likely, they won’t be remembered at all, as harsh as that is to say. That’s not to say they didn’t have their moments — their fight scene in 2015’s Ant-Man had some spark, and their beer date on top of the Golden Gate Bridge was cute. Ultimately, though, their relationship has rarely been central to their films despite them both being title heroes, and the chemistry hasn’t always been there. A missed opportunity on Marvel’s side to bring some romantic energy into their films.
Loki and Sylvie
Loki and Sylvie could be a great couple if their premise wasn’t so uncomfortable. Some have argued that Loki falling in love with himself is the perfect love story for a character so notoriously self-absorbed, but I have a completely different reading of this relationship. For starters, the concept in itself is too weird for me to get behind, and it’s hard to see a future for it that isn’t incredibly toxic. Both Loki and Sylvie definitely deserve to find some self-love in order to become better people, but not by dating a version of themselves from another universe. Hopefully, their relationship is just a stepping stone into becoming the versions of themselves that seek functional and healthy romance instead.
Thor and Jane
As often happens with stories where romance isn’t the priority, Jane and Thor’s relationship just didn’t fit the MCU’s plans for the God of Thunder. His hands were full with other adventures, and breaking him and Jane up via a throwaway line of dialogue in Thor: Ragnarok was the quickest exit. Their dynamic in the first Thor film as the brilliant astrophysicist and the inept Norse God was endearing and comical, and Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth had great chemistry, but the lack of overall quality in Thor: The Dark World, and the overcomplication of future plots for Thor’s character meant the relationship got left behind. By the time of Jane’s return in Thor: Love and Thunder, the damage to their relationship was irreparable, and the forcefully silly nature of the film never allowed viewers to take it seriously again.
Steve and Peggy
Out of all the elements in this list, Steve and Peggy are maybe the most painful to include. Their relationship started off as dreamy as can be in Captain America: The First Avenger and the romantic chemistry between Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell is rivaled by few in the MCU. But were the few months they shared in that film and the promise of a future date enough to sustain Steve’s decision to leave his timeline and everyone in it behind to get back together with Peggy? Not really. The contained nature of their bond in the first film is what made it great, but the ending they ended up receiving made the relationship feel forced, rushed, and overall unnatural.
Bruce and Natasha
This relationship was probably ruined before it had even started. It was never a good idea, and despite Natasha and Bruce (as the Hulk) sharing an interesting fight sequence in 2012’s The Avengers, their romantic turn still felt like it came out of nowhere in The Age of Ultron. The characters weren’t compatible at all, the connection was iffy and wooden, and even two of the greatest romantic film actors of all time couldn’t make it work. Naturally, it was completely dropped after that film, which only made it feel even more nonsensical. If there is any proof that the MCU just can’t seem to do romance right, it’s these two (and the next couple on the list).
Steve and Sharon
The only couple that’s worse than Bruce and Natasha are Steve and Sharon — that’s right, Peggy’s niece. What possessed the writers of Civil War to think this could possibly be a good idea, we’re still trying to figure out seven years later. I know I started this article by reminiscing about the time when romance was a prerequisite for any superhero movie, but if the result of that formula is this couple, then maybe it’s a good thing Marvel seems to have abandoned it. If we are to believe Steve was so desperately stuck on Peggy that he decided to travel back in time just to be with her, then that sentiment just simply cannot co-exist with him thinking it’s okay to date her niece. Somehow even weirder than Loki and Sylvie.
Stephen and Christine
Like Hope and Scott and Jane and Thor, Stephen and Christine feel like a missed opportunity. Once again, they’re a couple broken by the necessity to send these characters into missions so incredible in their scope, and detached from reality, that they become incompatible with a good romantic storyline. Still, even in the small moments that they shared among the multiversal madness of Doctor Strange 2, it became clear that Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel McAdams’ chemistry was being wasted away — a pattern that has unfortunately become all too repetitive among MCU couples. Unlike the previously mentioned couples, however, if Doctor Strange gets to complete his trilogy with a third film, there is still hope Stephen and Christine might find a way to honor a dynamic that has so much potential to become great.